London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the home counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5:15 pm to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights. From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities.
Like most ITV regional franchises, including Carlton's, the London weekend franchise is now operated by ITV plc. The "London Weekend" franchise was renewed by Ofcom in 2015 for ten years and is still separately licensed, but is no longer distinguished on air. LWT is now managed with Carlton Television as a single entity, although the name for the London Weekend licence on the Ofcom site is still "LWT". London Weekend Television Ltd is now listed at Companies House as a "dormant company".
History
Early years
Creation
The London Television Consortium was created and led by television presenter David Frost, who, at the time, was working for the London weekday ITV station Rediffusion. The consortium also included three ex-BBC members of staff: Michael Peacock, Frank Muir and Doreen Stephens. Rediffusion's Controller of Programmes, Cyril Bennett, also joined the consortium, along with Clive Irving, theatre director Peter Hall and, for financial backing, Arnold Weinstock, managing director of GEC.Frost had originally considered applying for the new Yorkshire region franchise, but the expected high number of applicants led to a change of plans. The second choice was to take on Rediffusion for their contract but, although it held the largest and most profitable licence, it was felt that the company was too powerful to challenge; equally, as an employee of the station, he felt it would be seen as an act of betrayal. Changes elsewhere in the system led Frost to believe that the existing Midlands weekday broadcaster ATV had a significant risk of losing its London weekend contract.
The consortium's application promised a variety of highbrow arts and drama productions. It accordingly caught the attention of the regulator, the Independent Television Authority, and it seemed to address concerns and criticisms raised in the Pilkington Report. The authority had been worried by criticism of the network's output, which was seen as downmarket and the LTC plans were viewed by the ITA as being serious contenders to the quality educational programming of the BBC. So keen was the ITA that it was quoted at the time as saying the LTC had to have its chance, whatever the repercussions.
The new company, renamed London Weekend Television, benefited from a slight extension in broadcasting hours, as they were allocated Fridays from 7 p.m., as well as Saturday and Sunday. The LTC had planned on buying the superior Teddington Studios of former contractor ABC Weekend TV, but following ABC's merger with Rediffusion to form Thames Television, the LTC were forced by the ITA to purchase Rediffusion's Wembley Studios and legally obliged to employ all members of staff, although the workforce was slightly larger than LWT had wanted. Having previously worked weekdays for Rediffusion, transmission staff now had to work at weekends, and, as a result, wanted extra pay for the unsocial hours. This led to threats of industrial action, and, with the dispute still unresolved, fifteen seconds into their opening night of 2 August 1968, technicians went on strike and the screens went blank. An emergency service was provided by management from the transmission centre of ATV at Foley Street, London.
Near collapse
Upon resolving the dispute, LWT suffered poor rating figures, as the station's evening viewing schedule included a Stravinsky musical drama, an avant-garde drama from French film director Jean-Luc Godard, a tribute to Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel, and Georgia Brown Sings Kurt Weill. As a consequence, viewers deserted its primetime offerings in favour of the more mainstream Saturday night viewing on BBC1. Other ITV stations refused to show LWT productions because of the poor ratings. ATV, now the seven-day Midlands franchise holder after losing their London contract to LWT, refused to transmit any of their programmes in peak time; elsewhere, the powerful sales department at Thames Television, who provided London with a Monday to Friday service, took advantage of LWT's ratings crisis by adopting a "beggar thy neighbour" strategy, encouraging advertisers to use Thames during the week by heavily discounting their airtime.The situation came to a head during a meeting of the Network Programme Committee on 9 September 1968. The NPC was being chaired by Lew Grade, ATV's managing director, and he is quoted as saying on this occasion: "I've succeeded in business by knowing exactly what I hate", he told them. "And I know I hate David Frost." Frost was present, but no one else spoke out against LWT's programming policy. Meanwhile, the £6.5 million it had initially put up for the franchise began to drain away more quickly than its audience figures. Michael Peacock, the architect in David Frost's vision for the future of television, wanted to stick to the principles of their contract with the ITA. ATV dropped Frost's major Saturday night slot altogether and replaced him with comedian Dave Allen, while Yorkshire and Granada relegated the show to the late evening.
In September 1969, Michael Peacock was sacked by the board while six executives resigned from LWT in support. The ITA made it clear that LWT's franchise proposals must be retained. As the crisis at LWT deepened, staff members held a protest outside the offices of the ITA, complaining about the changes happening at the station. An 800-strong petition was handed in to the ITA, to ask for an inquiry about the crisis at LWT. The ITA started to make emergency plans in the event of the company collapsing, and MPs asked questions in Parliament. At the same time, Thames started making enquiries about a seven-day contract in such an event – an offer quickly rebuffed by the ITA. In the general panic that followed, the General Electric Company withdrew financial backing and sold its 7.5% share to Rupert Murdoch's News International in November 1970. By December 1970, Murdoch become a part-time executive and injected £500,000 of new capital, increasing his share to 30% as part of the deal, also insisting on terminating Frost and his Paradine Productions, an action that was carried out at once. He continued to increase his stake further and, by the end of 1971, he possessed 39.7%.
Rupert Murdoch became managing director in February 1971. When Dr Tom Margerison left the company, he stated "there is no question of personal animosity between Rupert and myself. It's just one of those things: you cannot have two people running a ship." He had believed Murdoch was to become a non-executive director, but it was clear that he was going further than this.
Murdoch started restructuring LWT, but within weeks five other board members left. The ITA was unhappy at how Murdoch was able to buy his way into the company, because foreign nationals were legally blocked from owning the ITV contractors. It also demanded assurances that LWT's original programme policies and operations were sound. As a result, the ITA, concerned about Murdoch owning both a television station and significant newspaper interests, forced Murdoch from the chairmanship of LWT, and, on 9 March 1971, John Freeman, best known for presenting Face to Face for the BBC, became chairman and chief executive of LWT. He said "I expect many people are thinking I need my head examining, but I decided to take it up all the same. The public should have the kinds of programmes it wants, which means you must take into account minority interests as well as majority ones". Freeman made it quite clear that he expected to have full control within the company without any interference from Murdoch.
By early May, Freeman reappointed Cyril Bennett as Controller of Programmes, along with many of the original personnel who helped start up the company in 1967.
With these changes, LWT became influenced by the same character Murdoch's newspapers had. In time the station became regarded as a populist, conservative counterpart to the more highbrow and liberal Thames; hardly the BBC2-like ideal that Frost and Peacock had envisioned.
Audience share grew, and, in 1975, the company won seven BAFTA awards – more than the rest of ITV put together. Although the programming had changed from their original remit, LWT still produced shows which were considered more upmarket, in particular Upstairs, Downstairs. Unlike earlier offerings these attracted high audiences. LWT continued to show arts programming, mainly Aquarius and its successor The South Bank Show.
Improving fortunes
1970s
LWT's fortunes improved, which helped increase profits, and more money was made available for new programming. In 1972, Weekend World was launched; a weekly current affairs programme broadcast on Sundays at noon, presented by journalist Peter Jay. In 1974, the Director of Programmes at Thames, Brian Tesler, left to become Deputy Chief Executive to John Freeman. In the autumn of 1974, LWT challenged the BBC by spending £3.75 million on what it believed represented the biggest range of talent and varied scheduling for viewers, including Stanley Baxter, Danny La Rue, a number of new dramas and another current affairs show, which helped push up profits to nearly £4 million.In May 1976, LWT was reorganised to form a new company, LWT Limited which allowed the company to expand into a number of new ventures, including Hutchinson Publishing. The LWT Chairman & Chief Executive John Freeman said "an important factor was the deal would provide revenue from a wholly different source thus in part insulating LWT from the effects of any future adverse fluctuations in advertising revenue". In the same month he stood down as Chief Executive, and the Board appointed Brian Tesler as the company's managing director. Cyril Bennett died later that year, and Tesler doubled as the company's Director of Programmes until he appointed Michael Grade to that role in February 1977. Three decades later the official history of ITV, Independent Television in Britain, observed "Under Brian Tesler's Managing Directorship LWT was to become the success for which its founders had so earnestly striven."
In November 1978, News International sold off 16% of its LWT holding, reducing its shares from 39.7% to 25%, as it believed this was going to be one of the outcomes from the Annan Report on Broadcasting. LWT also warned shareholders that heavy spending on programmes would continue to reduce chances of increased profits. News International sold its remaining 25% stake on 13 March 1980, bringing an end to LWT's connection with the Australian tycoon.
After the 1979 ITV strike, LWT was hit hard. During November 1979 LWT believed it had managed to only lose around £200,000 over the course of the dispute. Its acquisition of specialist travel and tour operator Page & Moy and its Hutchinson publishing operations helped offset the losses made during the strike. Interim reports in April 1980 highlight LWT profits reducing by £2 million. By November it became clear that LWT profits had remained roughly the same as in the previous year, even with turnover increasing from £70.5 million to £80.5 million.